Issue 5-- Culture and Sex Differences in Communication

While I do think that biology has some impact on the communication styles of males and females, I think that culture has a much stronger influence. Ultimately, I would answer that socialization has much more influence on communication styles than biology. I respect and to a certain extent agree with Brizendine's arguments about women being hardwired to recognize faces because they are meant to connect, while males have a tendency to create competitive situations. However, these biological foundations are strongly reinforced and sometimes completely convoluted by environment and culture. I believe that the initial seeds for these typified gender normative behaviors and communication styles were probably influenced by the miniscule biological differences between males and females, but I think that the primary source of sex differences in these areas is socialization. Babies are socialized into binary genders by sex before they are even born when parents decorate a nursery in pink or blue, and the box only gets smaller from that point in terms of what is appropriate expression for each sex. I also find Allen's arguments about communication styles and the overt messages about the power dynamic between men and women very convincing. There is not biological explanation for the dominance that males exhibit in communication when compared to females. Connection may be biologically explained, but you can connect without submitting. I think this is a really important point. I also think that examining the communication styles of those who are biologically male or female, but have been socialized to reject gendered communication (or have chosen to reject it), such as gay men and lesbians, also support this theory.